Ethically Gray Golfing Trip

Tim Higgins at the Register penned a story implying that House Speaker Christopher Rants (R) may be accepting favors from lobbyists in exchange for pushing their legislative agenda:

As state lawmakers prepare to debate the future of the Iowa Lottery’s slot machine-like games, the Iowa House Speaker and a handful of other legislators went on a golf trip to Myrtle Beach with a casino lobbyist this past weekend.

The trip included four lawmakers, friends and lobbyist Kimberly Haus, who works on the behalf of Ameristar Casinos and other companies, said House Speaker Christopher Rants, a Republican from Sioux City, today.

And supporters of the TouchPlay systems feel that “casinos are their biggest advisories in this debate.”  Yeah, he meant adversaries, but that doesn’t change the power of the allegations.

Rants, of course, denies any impropriety unequivocally and claims that everyone “paid their own way.”

It’s just coincidence that the lobbyist, Kimberly Haus, also works for Phillip Morris, who is helped by Rants’s strong position against raising cigarette taxes.

3 comments March 13th, 2006